Is there anyone here that DOESN'T want this???

[McSvt]

If not the Paragon, how about it's big baby brother the Metregon.

1960 C45 METREGON

[nsgarch]

Originally Posted by hkval

About 40 years ago one of my friends had the Paragon and another friend had the JBL Olympus with the SR7 system inside. Both were played through Macs and, if I remember correctly, they were the C28 and Mc2205. The Paragon was a physical masterpiece and the modern design was way ahead of its time. It was very impressive but I thought a bit harsh and the soundstage was limited by today's standards. Otherwise, the physical presence and potential volume levels would knock your socks off. I preferred the sound of the Olympus because of the size of the presentation and the flexibility of placement of the speakers. The Olympus sound was powerful with impressive bass but could become harsh after listening at high levels. At that time, the Olympus was the speaker I lusted for but could never afford. Each of those speakers could withstand incredible decible levels but the human ear would weaken first. Today, the great speakers disappear in the room but when listening to the JBL I found myself focusing more on the speaker itself. If I had a second room, I would not turn down ownership of either of these nostalgic speakers. Just the conversations inspired would make them worth owning.

You are quite right, the Olympus SR7 was JBL's finest speaker system at the time; and not the Paragon. I detailed why here (post #10) http://audioaficionado.org/vintage-a...-mcintosh.html

In addition to the Metregon which McSvt mentioned, there was also a "bookshelf" version, the Minigon! I wish I'd known then, what I do now about speaker enclosure design (and so does JBL, I bet! ), because the Paragon could have been made to provide good bass -- it just needed a passive passive radiator on the back (like the Olympus has on the front) and better placement of the tweeter (moving it out of the shadow of the cabinet sides) would have strengthened the soundstage.

Also the unit was just too low! Many Paragon owners wound up building a 1ft + raised dais on which to place the speaker. This got the midrange drivers and the tweeters closer to ear level -- stock, they're practically on the floor Look at the picture again and realize that the top of the cabinet is roughly at table height!
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[michaelhigh]

Reminds me of a super swank rig topper you'd see at the Mansion on Playboy After Dark (am I dating myself???) or at Dino's or Frank's house. Yeah, baby.

[Haurock]

Nope I don't.....